Landlords and renters come in

I need to put my rental back on the market.

Last time I used a realtor who is a family friend. I didn't realize this at the time, but she doesn't usually do rentals. She made a comment to me recently that when we put it back on the market we should just do craigslist and she'll run our prospect's credit.

She lives about 45 minutes from my rental so maybe it's not worth it for her.

Anyway, I've received her hint - she's not interested in the listing.

Craigslist makes me a little leary but I'm open to it if others have had success.

So, landlords: Have you had success renting on craigslist? Do you get a lot of flakes? How would this even work with checking credit? Do I just give people's info to someone - I guess our realtor friend - with access to the appropriate system?

Renters: How much of a turnoff is it to pay the realtor's fee? Do you actively look for places where you don't have to?

TIA!

Re: Landlords and renters come in

We are currently looking for an apartment and its makes it so much stressful with any additional rental fees. Its tough enough today just to get all the money just to move it any additonal fees make it more stressful. But if have to pay them to get an apartment what are we going to do we need to move out of my parents house enough is enough

Re: Landlords and renters come in

Lots of success using craigslist. Yes you do get a lot of flakes. My best advice is to set a window and make all the appointments in that time frame so you aren't running around like crazy to show the place to people who may or may not show up.

For example we tell people to come between 5-7 on weekdays. Sometimes more then one person shows up at a time but that beats sitting around waiting on one person who doesn't show. It has never been an issue.

No problems running credit. We have a friend who is a REA and they do it for us.

FM me if you have any other questions. I have more then my fair share of experience renting on CL Good luck.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

As a realtor, I often use Craig's List to advertise my listings (even when they are on MLS, too). I have gotten good responses, and I recently found great tenants for one of my landlords on that site, but you definitely need to be careful and financially qualify your prospective tenants.

You can have your real estate friend run the credit, but you need to get your prospective tenant's authorization to run credit, and they need to give you their social security number to do it. We have a form that tenants fill out that give authorization to run credit, so you should ask your friend to supply it to you or give you one to use as a model and create your own form. Make sure you also verify their income and employment, check references, etc.

I think it could go either way, as far as tenants' reaction to the realtor's fee. My office charges one month's rent as the fee (I know in some other areas, it's customary to charge a percentage -- 10% or 12%, for example --- of the annual rent). Of course, some people want to avoid the fee, because with the fee, you typically need 3 months rent upfront to get into a place.

However, we never have problems finding tenants who will pay the fee. In fact, some people are leery of Craig's List or Pennysaver posts by owners and feel more reassured when they use a realtor that the landlord is legitimate and has been at least minimally screened.

I think the advantage of using a realtor for you as the landlord is that (i) you are not inviting strangers into your home -- tenants make appointments through and are therefore screened by realtors first, (ii) a realtor will qualify the tenant -- we have a rental application, we do a credit check, and we verify employment and income, and (iii) more marketing, and (iv) it's no cost to you, because on LI, the tenant pays the fee.

If you wanted to use a realtor to have the security and screening and extra marketing a realtor can provide, but are worried about tenants not wanting to pay the fee, then you could always offer to pay the fee (some listings say "landlord pays the fee") -- but that's unusual!

Another option is -- give it to a realtor as an "open listing," meaning they can try to rent it, but you also have the right to rent it on your own (you don't give the agent the exclusive right to rent it). A lot of realtors take open listings for rentals, it's quite common.

Message edited 4/3/2011 2:59:44 PM.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

We had a ton of traffic with craigslist, but a ton of flakes, I agree wit making a window of appts thats what we did, but not only flakes on appts, but flakes with ppl dying for the place and at the last minute saying (after basically giving us everything but signing the lease) yah we decided to not go with the house, we had at least 4-5 ppl do that, strangest thing in the world!! But I don't blame craigslist for that, we had ppl using a realtor and they did that as well..so I think we were just lucky

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We found our rental through a local newspaper, Southampton Press, but yes we did dismiss a lot of rentals that were through realtors.

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We found our place through craigs list. I was thrilled not to have a fee! But I did also look w brokers

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we list our rental on craigslist. we are VERY picky with who we choose, never ran a credit report just go with out gut and we havent had any issues yet. **knock on wood**

Re: Landlords and renters come in

I'm a renter for now.
I've always found my apartments in the local paper. I never went on craigslist to even look for an apartment. I know it's successful in a lot of ways for other people... but I'm just not into craigslist at all for anything. I never even check it.
The local paper has always given me the best results. And I've never wanted to go through a realtor. Honestly, I don't want to pay the fees for one. But if I had to go through a realtor, I would for sure.

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I would only rent an apartment with a brokers fee if it was my "dream" apartment. Otherwise I would search high and low for an apartment where I wouldn't have to deal with the additional fees or a realtor.

Also, I like meeting the landlords. The last time we searched for an apartment we saw a few that we liked but the landlord was a total turn off so we opted out of renting them.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

Even if you rent through a realtor, you should always meet with the landlord. Usually, with rentals, once a potential tenant makes an application, and the landlord agrees to the tenant on paper, the agents arrange a time for the landlord and potential tenant to meet to air any concerns, negotiate any minor items, and finally (if all goes well), sign the lease or rental agreement.

I would never advise either a landlord or tenant to sign a lease or hand over any money without meeting each other first, especially if the landlord lives on the premises.

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I have someone that I used and have referred him to many others and he is terrific.. very dedicated and won't charge you a dime.. (the renters pay him)

Let me know if you want him info!

Re: Landlords and renters come in

Alot of agents now even list the properties on craigs list now.

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Im a renter, I found my current apartment that im in on craigslist.

Unless the realtor is gonna show me something that WOW, im not gonna go for it. The realtors usually charge one months rent, so if we are looking for an apt. w/$1400 a month rent, I would have to pay the realtor $1400. THATS CRAZY!!

If I were you I would go through craigslist, you will get a lot of traffic... a lot of it wont pan out but I think you wont have any problems renting it out without using a realtor!!

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Message edited 4/4/2011 12:07:46 PM.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

Didn't read replies but here's my experience.

I am currently renting an apartment I bought before I met DH. I did CL. It's a co-op so there are fees and interview. I should have filmed the people who came in. I thought I was on PUNKed. One woman said it wasn't feng shue (sp) enough. Another said she couldn't remember how long she's been at her job. One said there was no way she could move on a weekday (um, common iny area with all co-op building). The last guy came with his Mom and seems good so far (fingers crossed) He didnt mind fees and interview. Of course fess were less than RE fee but I would think the interview is more nerve racking.
I wanted to add, I said in my add MUST have high credit score, show paystub etc. You can get just your credit score for a dollar on line now (well they'd show it to you). You really don't need a RE agent.

I currently rent a house with DH. I did it through RE agent and let me tell you it was worth the fee in time, paperwork, having someone else deal with nonsense etc. BUT the house was priced low and when I factored in the RE fee, it's s till a steal. I find it was easier too. Some people are too busy with work to go through ads etc.

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DH and I recently bought a new house and decided to rent out the one we had been living in. We figured we would do Craig's List because no one would want to spend the realtor fees such as I didn't when I was a renter. We had a bunch of people come to see the place or call us and the majority of the people made us nervous. Although we stated there would be a lease, security, credit and background check, many of the people we feel weren't taking us seriously. We had one couple who said they wanted it, signed a lease and then their deposit check was no good.

After that we went with the realtor because we were fed up and we had it rented in 2 weeks with hardly any work on our part. It was so much easier on us and the realtor did all of the background and credit checks. I just felt alot more confident knowing that all was taken care of.

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i have only ever rented off craigslist and have never had any problems.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

we found our 1st apt on craigslist

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As a renter, I do actively look for apartments that are no-fee. In the city a broker fee can easily be $3-5.5k and I'd rather not spend it, although often times the rent is higher without a broker fee. Our current apartment had no fee because we went directly through our building's management company, and we got a better price on rent because they weren't paying a broker. We are in the process of looking now and are trying to stick to no fee apartments initially but will pay a fee if we can't find a no-fee apartment that works for us. My sister had a more difficult criteria as far as apartments go and was only able to find the kind of apartment she wanted through a broker, so she and her roommate ended up paying a $3k fee... but now she is really hoping to stay to avoid paying another hefty fee...

Re: Landlords and renters come in

We found our apt on craigslist and definitely tried to seek out rentals that didn't have realtor fees. To have to pay extra $$ on top of what you're already paying for a security deposit is a giant PITA, especially when you're looking for the place yourself.

I have a friend who has 2 rentals and she always lists on craiglist. I would make the people bring a copy of their credit report if they're interested that way you can get a better idea of who you're dealing with.

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Message edited 4/5/2011 11:20:43 AM.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

I'm a landlord and have rented out my old condo on Craigslist. The key is to write a VERY specific ad detailing the property, amenities, rental price and security deposit required along with requirements.

I always spend several days screening a potential tenant. My parents have had horror stories with prior tenants and I made sure never to be in their shoes again. I never rent to Section 8, people with sketchy job or income histories, or people who can't provide references from at least 2 of their prior landlords/residences.

The last thing I need is to worry about evicting tenants or fighting them in housing court. I have never used a realtor, I found them to be a waste of my time and money.

For verifying income or credit, I use the LPA site (link below) and joined 2 services called "Tenant Verification Services" - which cost me only $20 or $30. All you need to do is provide them with your info, the rental address, and a form verifying you are using that Background Search info as a potential Landlord.


The Landlord Protection Agency:

http://www.thelpa.com/

A direct link to the Tenant Screening services they offer:

http://www.thelpa.com/lpa/QuickCheck.html

Message edited 4/5/2011 11:35:43 AM.

Re: Landlords and renters come in

Where is the property? I know several people that are looking!

Re: Landlords and renters come in

I found my apartment on Craigslist. I had to pay a brokers fee $1000, security $1000 and one months rent $1000 up front. I also brought a copy of my credit report and copies of my pay stubs from the previous few months. I LOVED the apartment so I did it. In the future though..when i am looking for a bigger place where the rent will be higher, I'll check Craigslist but try to find one without a brokers fee first.